NNSA Blog

Los Alamos National Laboratory recently installed a new high-performance computer system, called Wolf, which will be used for unclassified research. Wolf will help modernize mid-tier resources available to the lab and can be used to advance many fields of science.

Wolf, manufactured by Cray Inc., has 616 compute nodes, each with two 8-core 2.6 GHz Intel “Sandybridge” processors, 64 GB of memory and a high-speed Infiniband interconnect network. It utilizes LANL's existing Panasas parallel file system as well as a new one based on Lustre technology.

About the photo: The Wolf computer system modernizes mid-tier resources for Los Alamos scientists.

Under Secretary Klotz delivered remarks at the Pantex Renewable Energy Project (PREP) ribbon-cutting this week. PREP establishes the largest federally-owned wind farm in the country and will generate approximately 47 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, more than 60 percent of the electricity needed for Pantex. The project will reduce CO2 emissions by over 35,000 metric tons per year—the equivalent of removing 7,200 cars from the road each year or planting 850,000 trees.

DOE Undersecretary for Nuclear Security and NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz recently presented the Gold Medal of Excellence for Distinguished Service to Michael Lempke, former Acting Chief and Associate Administrator for Defense Nuclear Security. The medal is the highest honorary award granted by NNSA and was presented to Lempke in recognition of his outstanding contributions to achieving the strategic deterrent and nuclear nonproliferation missions of the NNSA through his demanding and visionary leadership for the past two years.

Lempke began his naval career in the enlisted ranks as a yeoman serving on the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations Telecommunications Officer at the Pentagon. He received his commission as an ensign in the U.S. Navy Supply Corps after completing Officer Candidate School in Pensacola, Fla. During initial training at the U.S. Navy Supply Corps School in Athens, Ga., he was hand-selected for service at Naval Reactors Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Sandia National Laboratories researcher Stephanie Hansen has received a $2.5 million, five-year Early Career Research Program award from the DOE's Office of Science for her fundamental science proposal to improve existing atomic-scale models for high-energy-density matter.

Hansen’s winning submission, “Non-Equilibrium Atomic Physics in High Energy Density Material,” describes an approach to improve simulation tools used to design high-energy experiments in dense hot plasmas, as well as the diagnostic tools used to interpret data from them.

DOE Undersecretary for Nuclear Security and NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz visited the Y-12 National Security Complex today. Klotz toured the site and conducted an all hands meeting at the site's New Hope Center.

NNSA’s current quarterly summary of experiments conducted as part of its science-based stockpile stewardship program is now available here.

The quarterly summary prepared by NNSA’s Office of Defense Programs provides descriptions of key NNSA facilities that conduct stockpile stewardship experiments. These include some of the most sophisticated scientific research facilities in the world including, the Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory, National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the Z machine at Sandia National Laboratories. The summary also provides the number of experiments performed at each facility during each quarter of the fiscal year.

The U.S. Stockpile Stewardship Program sustains and assess the nuclear weapons stockpile without the use of underground nuclear tests. The experiments carried out within the program are used in combination with complex computational models and NNSA’s Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Program to assess the safety, security and effectiveness of the stockpile.

Staff from across NNSA participated in the third annual Derek Sheely Lead the Way 4.0-Mile Run. The event raises funds to support concussion awareness on behalf of the Derek Sheely Foundation. On Aug. 22, 2011, Derek suffered a traumatic brain injury during football practice at Frostburg State University and died one week later. He had previously served as an NNSA intern and is the son of Ken Sheely, NNSA program executive officer for the Office of Infrastructure and Operations.

A patented, portable, high-powered hydraulic tool, invented to shear and trap bolt heads during demolition projects, has proven its worth and is moving to market. Y-12 National Security Complex signed a licensing agreement with start-up company Green Arc Labs (GAL) of Chattanooga for Omni Jaw 5.

The hand-held tool, invented a decade ago by Lee Bzorgi of Y-12’s National Security Technology Center, generates up to 5 tons of force on the cutting jaw and simultaneously collects the trimmings, eliminating environmental and safety hazards. It was designed during demolition of the East Tennessee Technology Park where asbestos cyanide-dipped bolts posed a problem.

About the photo: The Omni Jaw 5, a patented, portable, high-powered hydraulic tool, invented to shear and trap bolt heads during demolition projects, has been licensed by Y-12 to Green Arc Labs (GAL) of Chattanooga.

Charles E. Messick receives the Administrator’s Gold Award upon his retirement after more than 40 years of public service. From left to right: Anne Harrington, Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation; Charles E Messick, Susan Messick, and Frank Klotz, DOE Undersecretary for Nuclear Security and NNSA Administrator.

This month, employees at the National Security Campus in Kansas City, Mo., are celebrating the completion of the last "build ahead" part needed to maintain their 99.9 percent on-time delivery record during one of the nation’s largest industrial moves. More than 275 unique part numbers encompassing 20,000 components were built in advance to ensure uninterrupted deliveries while production departments were transitioning between sites.

Several years before the massive move to the National Security Campus began, Honeywell planned to build an inventory of sophisticated components by establishing a plan for each part number to satisfy requirements for more than 20,000 components. The effort required the development of a new Manufacturing Transformation Database, which helped to schedule supply chain and production activities.

This on-time, on-budget move represents a significant part of Federal government’s focus on modernization and infrastructure investment. As one of the only LEED® Gold-rated manufacturing facilities, the modern campus showcases innovative space management and cost savings of $100 million annually.